Epic Star Trek Re-Watch - TOS Movies Final Week - Final Frontier & Undiscovered Country! Pg 28! (TNG NEXT WEEK)

Send Picard and Sisko instead.

I agree with Moggy that we should probably stick right through a series rather than mixing up all the time. There's tiny little nods to other series/films but nothing that's going to really be a problem.

I'd say the order should probably be,

TOS
TAS
TOS Movies 1-6
TNG
Generations
DS9
First Contact
Voyager
Insurrection
Nemesis
Enterprise
Star Trek (2009)
Star Trek Into Darkness
Star Trek Beyond
Discovery
Picard
Lower Decks
<Insert various new series here>

The Alternative Factor

After a really good run of episodes it comes to a crashing halt with this steaming pile of gooseberry fool. The trippy 60s effects got on my nerves and they did it over and over again.

Awful.

Watched "Devil in the Dark" yesterday and it remains one of my favourite TOS episodes.

Simple story, well told, with a satisfying pay-off at the end. Again, there's no "villain" just misunderstanding, while the Horta itself is quite well done (Given the time and budget), even if it's clearly a guy on a wheeled trolly with a rug thrown over him.

PAIN!



He must have flashed-forward to see "The Alternative Factor".

Regarding the order, I'll nail it down closer to the time, but if people would rather do it series by series that's fine.

Moggy wrote:The Alternative Factor

After a really good run of episodes it comes to a crashing halt with this steaming pile of gooseberry fool. The trippy 60s effects got on my nerves and they did it over and over again.

Awful.

I remember it being pretty poor when I watched it last time. Not looking forward to it.

EDIT: I would say I remember it being boring, which if anything is worse. Something can be bad, but still entertaining (And there are a few examples of that throughout Trek).

The Devil in the Dark

For an episode about fighting what looks like a bloke crawling around wrapped in the worlds ugliest duvet, this was actually quite good! The twist of "OMG THESE THINGS ARE THE CREATURES EGGS!!!111!!" was strawberry floating obvious from the start, and it's a bit disappointing how "gung ho" everyone is, with only Spock showing any real interest in investigating what the creature is and making contact with it. There's definitely less of a focus on peaceful exploration at this point in the show, despite the sentiment of the famous intro, right now it seems that their 5 year mission is "To seek out new life and new civilizations... and blow them to pieces!!!"

I think this might have been our first instance of a "I'm a Doctor, not a ..." from Bones as well?

EDIT: In terms of watching order I was happy with the original suggestion from Devlin, mixing things together to maintain some form of chronological sense seems like a good move IMO. But equally I don't particularly care if we end up just batching shows and movies together.

Jenuall wrote:The Devil in the Dark

For an episode about fighting what looks like a bloke crawling around wrapped in the worlds ugliest duvet, this was actually quite good! The twist of "OMG THESE THINGS ARE THE CREATURES EGGS!!!111!!" was strawberry floating obvious from the start, and it's a bit disappointing how "gung ho" everyone is, with only Spock showing any real interest in investigating what the creature is and making contact with it. There's definitely less of a focus on peaceful exploration at this point in the show, despite the sentiment of the famous intro, right now it seems that their 5 year mission is "To seek out new life and new civilizations... and blow them to pieces!!!"

I think this might have been our first instance of a "I'm a Doctor, not a ..." from Bones as well?

EDIT: In terms of watching order I was happy with the original suggestion from Devlin, mixing things together to maintain some form of chronological sense seems like a good move IMO. But equally I don't particularly care if we end up just batching shows and movies together.

I'm glad at least one person liked it.

I'll probably do a bit of a hybrid approach, in that I'll group all the series together, but I'll insert the TNG movies where they make most sense. We'll see.

On an unrelated note, I finally finished my first watch through Enterprise last night.

Man that show really got good just as it got cancelled.

A few other things I want to ask as well:

1 - Would everyone be happy with a week off between seasons? I feel it gives people a chance to catch up if they need to. (Pancake seems to have disappeared )

2 - When we get to The Animated Series there are only twenty-two episodes and they're just over twenty minutes each, so I'm thinking about doing that as three, eight episode weeks. You'd still have the same amount to watch in terms of "time" and it means we can get through it and onto the Movies and The Next Generation quicker.

3 - For the Movies, do we want two a week? Three? Four? I'm leaning towards two myself.

Not fussed on a week break between seasons, but if it helps people catch up then that can't be a bad thing.

Doubling up on TAS seems like a good move, if they're half the length then why not!

Movies wise - I'll definitely struggle to find many 2 hour slots during the week to fit these in (can't see me convincing the wife to watch any of them sadly!) so stepping down to two a week would be good IMO.

My insomnia means I'm always looking for something to watch, so I'm happy with no break. But if people want time to catch up then I'm cool with it.

"The Alternative Factor" - Utter shite.

Easily the worst episode we've had so far. There are worse episodes, but not too many.

Cheeky Devlin wrote:"The Alternative Factor" - Utter shite.

Easily the worst episode we've had so far. There are worse episodes, but not too many.

Just looking at his shitty beard makes me angry.

Moggy wrote:

Cheeky Devlin wrote:"The Alternative Factor" - Utter shite.

Easily the worst episode we've had so far. There are worse episodes, but not too many.

Just looking at his shitty beard makes me angry.

It's truly an awful, wispy piece of gooseberry fool.

Looking forward to the next episode though.

Errand of Mercy

Shoddy early Klingon design aside this was a decent enough episode overall. As Moggy pointed out earlier Kirk is a bit of a twat with his lecturing the Organians about the need to fight and defend themselves. They are way to slow to pick up on the obvious hints that they are actually dealing with super beings here, Spock in particular should have been more curious about them.

Also: it's Kor! I never realised that they actually used the same character and actor from TOS in DS9 - I just assumed he was new. I know they mention him meeting Kirk in DS9 at some point but I just thought that was some nice colour for his backstory and not something we actually see!

I'm guessing these Klingon's are supposed to represent some kind of Mongol/Chinese warrior race at this point, it's all a bit iffy and difficult to watch in some ways but then it was all 50 years ago I guess.



I've watched about half of The Alternative Factor before I was interrupted and had to stop. Not sure I've got the will to go back and finish it off!

Jenuall wrote:Errand of Mercy

Shoddy early Klingon design aside this was a decent enough episode overall. As Moggy pointed out earlier Kirk is a bit of a twat with his lecturing the Organians about the need to fight and defend themselves. They are way to slow to pick up on the obvious hints that they are actually dealing with super beings here, Spock in particular should have been more curious about them.

Also: it's Kor! I never realised that they actually used the same character and actor from TOS in DS9 - I just assumed he was new. I know they mention him meeting Kirk in DS9 at some point but I just thought that was some nice colour for his backstory and not something we actually see!

I'm guessing these Klingon's are supposed to represent some kind of Mongol/Chinese warrior race at this point, it's all a bit iffy and difficult to watch in some ways but then it was all 50 years ago I guess.



I've watched about half of The Alternative Factor before I was interrupted and had to stop. Not sure I've got the will to go back and finish it off!

Yeah Kor and two other Klingons from TOS re-appear in DS9 played by their original actors, which is a really nice touch. We've already seen one of the actors (William Campbell also played Trelane in "The Squire of Gothos") who appears again. It's a really nice throwback.

Everyone loves a bit of continuity!

Speaking of which I've foolishly only just realised that Number One/Nurse Chapel is the same actress as Lwxana Troi! Also I knew she did the voice for the computers in TNG onwards but I didn't twig that it was her doing the computer all the way back to TOS as well. Impressive!

Jenuall wrote:Everyone loves a bit of continuity!

Speaking of which I've foolishly only just realised that Number One/Nurse Chapel is the same actress as Lwxana Troi! Also I knew she did the voice for the computers in TNG onwards but I didn't twig that it was her doing the computer all the way back to TOS as well. Impressive!

She must have had some sway backstage to get so many prominent roles!

Cuttooth wrote:

Jenuall wrote:Everyone loves a bit of continuity!

Speaking of which I've foolishly only just realised that Number One/Nurse Chapel is the same actress as Lwxana Troi! Also I knew she did the voice for the computers in TNG onwards but I didn't twig that it was her doing the computer all the way back to TOS as well. Impressive!

She must have had some sway backstage to get so many prominent roles!

She sure knows how to dust Gene's Rod

Majel Barrett was legit Trek royalty and yeah she was married to Roddenberry at one point.

I've fallen behind a little. But I'll get caught up.

Squinty wrote:I've fallen behind a little. But I'll get caught up.

We're taking a week off after next week for just that purpose.

Week 8 only has 2 episodes, then a week off before we start Season 2!